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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

TBR welcomes Ann Chamberlin

TBR:
Welcome to TBR, Ann. Will you share a little bit about yourself?Ann: I was
born in Salt Lake City but spent a lot of time as a child in Europe where my
father was a visiting professor of mathematics.
A college summer spent excavating the biblical city of Beersheva
confirmed a lifelong interest in the historic Middle East. I work in a library and own a bookstore. The Sword of God is my thirteenth
published book. Other books have been
international bestsellers. I've also had
many plays produced, including Jihad which won best new Off-off Broadway
play of the year.

TBR:
Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.
Ann: In the early days of Islam, three lives braid
together magic, family and faith.

TBR:
What inspired you to write about the theme?
Ann: As a
young college student working on a biblical excavation, I had the arrogance to
think that I had something to teach the women I might meet in the Middle
East. Then, on a ten-day trip to the
Sinai desert, I spent some time as a guest of a Bedouin family. The mother of this family—I never saw her
face behind her veil, and at the time I had no more Arabic than she had
English. Even so, she was remarkable. I could tell how much everyone around her
respected her, more than any woman I’d ever known. I have spent all my years since trying to
understand what I had misunderstood before.

I also was impressed with how the Bedouin have
adapted to one of the harshest climates in the world. And I wanted answers to my questions, “What
were people thinking and doing at the time of the Prophet Muhammad? What adjustments had to be made in the face
of such world-changing events?”

I want to express the fact that the Muslim world
should not be dismissed with the facile explanations we give one another on the
news. It is worth the stories I have
spent thirty years writing—and many other points of view, too.

TBR:
Are you a plotter or pantser?Ann: I have
the outline given by history, but after that, it's all seat of my pants,
directed by research.

TBR:
Did any music inspire your book? Do you have a playlist?

Ann: Bedouin Music of the Southern Sinai, an
old Folkways recording, Music from Yemen
Arabia, Laments of Lebanon, recordings ofmuezzins’ calls and chanted Quran formed the soundtrack of this
book.

TBR:
What's next for you?

Ann: The Sword and the Well will complete
my trilogy about early Islam.

This year Penumbra Press will also begin to publish a new trilogy
based on the sagas of the early Germanic tribes: Valkyries and Vikings and all
that. A woman warrior finds her place in
the world against barbarians and implacable gods. The publisher means to bring the titles out
much closer to each other than is often the case since I have the whole cycle
written. The titles are Choosers of the Slain, The Linden’s Red
Plague and Into the Bog.

TBR:
Any other published works?Ann: By the
end of this year, I will have published seventeen books including my nonfiction
Veil in the Looking Glass, shortly to
be available as an ebook.

TBR:
What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Most rewarding?Ann:
Publicity. Speaking with
intelligent readers about the topics raised and dimensions from their lives
that they can add to my understanding—that’s the most rewarding.

TBR: What’s
the most interesting comment you have received about your books?Ann: “Lush”
is a word I often get in reviews for my fiction—which I like. The most interesting comments I received were
two I got in Turkey back to back about my Sofia
trilogy. A young woman told me in
something of a lowered voice that “My grandmother told me the harem was just
like you portrayed it.” A young man
immediately declared I’d got it all wrong, since purity was the first word he
associated with the Ottoman Empire of his ancestors and my version wasn’t pure.

TBR:
Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Ann: I want
to be Mary Renault—The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea, etc.--when
I grow up.

Right now I'm reading a lot about the Turkic
tribes of central Asia, shamanism.

TBR:
Readers, Ann Chamberlin will give away one copy of The Sword of God or
of The Woman at the Well, the first book in the series (your choice)to one lucky commenter. She'll pick a winner on
April 23, 2013and announce the winner here.
Be sure to leave your email address so she can contact you.

1 comment:

Hi, Ann. I was surprised to see you on Bloglovin. How come you didn't send the group a notice about this blog? Love the new cover and I know this book will be as successful as all your others. See you Friday.

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